Botswana Bulletin – Twenty Sixth Edition

Botswana Bulletin – Twenty Sixth Edition

“Officially Official”

July 11, 2007

Greetings from a hot and sunny Edmonton, Alberta, Canada!  I have been enjoying the return of the sun these days.  After two years in Botswana, I’m beginning to realize how climatized (is that a word?) I’ve become to the warmer weather.  Everybody here seems to be in shorts and tank tops while I’m still wearing pants and a t-shirt.  I’ve been explaining to people that boys wear shorts in Botswana and men wear pants.  That terminology may seem funny to my African friends (shorts are called pants in Botswana, pants are called trousers) but I think you get the idea. 

Anyway, wow, it’s been a little while since I’ve written to you all.  Don’t think that I was ignoring you this whole time, it’s been quite the contrary.  I just haven’t really had anything to say.  !!!  I think you’d all disagree with that statement.  Well, ok, I’ve actually been waiting to be able to tell you something about my status with applying for membership with SIM.  Well, it’s finally happened folks.  I’m proud to officially state that I am a full-member of SIM and will now be working with SIM in a full-time capacity.  Cool!  This all came to fruition on June 25^th when I was invited to SIM Canada’s head office in Toronto.  The last few interviews needed to be done in Toronto and then assuming I was going to be accepted I would need to meet with a number of SIM’s personnel to discuss finances, support raising, spiritual growth and development, etc.  So, when I arrived in Toronto we got right into the interviews.  I had a lifestyle interview where we talked about…my lifestyle!  Then there was a doctrinal interview.  This interview was for the purpose of discussing my doctrinal assessment and any questionable things that may have come up.  Remember the doctrinal assessment I discussed in April?  It’s basically this huge document that sums up your basic theology and your views on certain Christian beliefs (ex. Baptism, post or premillennialism, etc).  I’m not sure why I was nervous, I guess I was just thinking worst case scenario.  “What if I said something that offends them?”  I can do that sometimes.  So I was sitting there waiting to put my foot in my mouth but the interview ended up going very well.  So far so good.

The next interview was a board interview where I met with a few members of the SIM board.  The board members were very nice and the meeting felt more like a conversation over coffee than a grilling interview.  Apparently the official process or the “normal” process is for the candidate (me) to leave the room at the end of the meeting and then the board members discuss my worthiness.  Well, in my case they just kind of looked at each other and said, “What do you think?”  They all agreed that I seemed to be an excellent candidate so they didn’t dismiss me they just welcomed me right there into the family.  Woohoo!  I felt great.  This was about a 3 month process that was finally complete so I was happy that the wait was finally over.  So, you may be asking yourself, “Whats the next step Graham?”  I’m glad you asked.

I’ve been busy getting a package ready for each of you that I should be sending out in the mail by the end of this week.  The package will include a letter explaining what I’m doing, a prayer card (a lovely picture of me with some prayer requests on it), and a response card (a card that you fill in stating whether you want to be a prayer partner, a financial partner, receive my prayer letters or I guess none of the above).  For those of you who may have supported me in the past, this card will need to be filled out again.  All financial donations (monthly or otherwise) were terminated when I returned home.  If you feel lead to partner with me please fill out the card and send it to SIM (I’ll include a envelope with SIM’s address)  I think I have most of your current addresses but just in case feel free to e-mail me back your current mailing address.  This process will also guarantee that you’ll get said package.  My hope is that by August 31^st I will be ready to return to Botswana and I can’t leave until I am 100% supported.  The package will explain the financial requirements so I’ll let the package speak to that.  I will however tell you why the date has been set to August 31^st.  This is because of what is happening in Botswana.  Let me explain.

Most of you may have heard me talk about my manager in Botswana, Richard Wheatley.  He is responsible for all the IT related work for the Flying Mission and is my direct supervisor.  Richard is due to go on furlough to the UK on September 17^th.  What we are hoping and praying for is that I will be able to return to Botswana before Richard has to leave.  The reason for this is it would be ideal if me and Richard could spend some time together and discuss some of the changes that Richard has implemented while I’ve been gone.  So basically we are praying that we would be able to have a small “hand over” period where Richard will be able to reincorporate me into the new IT environment.  I’m also going to need some time to setup my new home, purchase a car, and various other things so it would nice if I didn’t have to immediately juggle work with all those other things.  If for some reason August 31^st arrives and I am still short financially we will simply have to delay my return.  This wouldn’t be the end of the world it would just mean that things will be a lot more difficult when I arrive in Botswana.  Anyway, I’m asking that you all keep this in your prayers as I feel this is the best time to arrive back in Botswana.  In all of this I realize God’s timing is what counts, so I’ve been praying that this timing would be God’s timing and not simply my own agenda.

Some of you may be wondering what I’ve been up to during the months of May and June.  I spent most of my time working at Enbridge but I did have some fun activities in June I’d like to tell you about.  The first was on June 8^th which turned out to be an incredible night.  First I’ll give you some background.

Most of you probably know that while I was visiting in South Africa I purchased a “djembe”, an African hand drum.  I played it for about a year in Botswana when I realized that the head was starting to crack.  When I returned to Canada in November last year I brought the drum with me in my baggage.  When I got home I realized the crack had turned into a tear and the drum was now in need of repair.  I went to a few music shops to see if they had goat skins for African drums but nobody carried anything like that.  One store I went to told me of a guy named “Muru” who started this organization called “Global Hand Drummers”.  Apparently he has repaired African drums in the past so the guy gave me his number and I gave him a call.  When I called him, Muru said he may have difficulty finding a goat skin here in Alberta but he would try.  It turns out Muru is a Ugandan and he has been playing hand drums all his life.  He told me if he could find a skin he would fix my drum.  So I waited for Muru and he finally got back to me stating that he couldn’t find a goat skin but knew of one other person that had bought one in the past.  Instead of Muru calling him he told me to come meet him in Chinatown.  Apparently Muru and this fellow were going to perform for a multicultural fundraising function and Muru said, “Why don’t you come meet him.  Oh, and I would like it if you would play with us.”  Huh?  He hasn’t even heard me play!  I was a bit nervous but also excited about the opportunity so I said I would be there.  Well, June 8^th arrived and there I was in Chinatown with Muru, the goat skin guy Bill, and an Ethiopian fellow named Jamal.  With only about 30 minutes to spare Muru decided it would be a good idea to practice a few rhythms.  Yah think?!  See, we had never played together before so Muru thought it would be a good idea if we practiced a few beats before playing in front of 600 people.  !!!  600 people!  He failed to mention that part on the phone.  Anyway, we started playing and Muru started to show me some Egyptian beats that we were going to play.  The three of us playing together sounded awesome.  Jamal would start the beat on his keyboard and then we would come in with the beat on our drums.  It was really cool.  This Bill fellow could really rock.  He’s been playing for a long time and man did it show!  Anyway, so after a little bit of practice it was time to head on stage.

We got on stage and started to play and just as we got going something unexpected happened.  Belly dancers came out onto the floor and started dancing to our music.  What?!  That’s right I said belly dancers!  Man, this was starting to get weird.  It was actually quite tastefully done and the one guy playing with us, Bill, had straps for his drum so he could stand up and play.  He walked over to the dancers and started playing really fast in front of them.  If was funny to see what they would come up with for dances as we changed the beats.  It ended up being really cool. 

Anyway, after we played Bill told me of a store called Brandenburg music which stocked goat skins for African drums.  Muru and I headed to the store to check out their skins when I noticed they had some brand new drums for sale.  After talking about prices I realized that for the price of fixing my old drum I could purchase a brand new one!  Go figure!  Well, since Muru offered to fix mine for free I decided to buy a new drum as well as the skin and now I have 2 drums for a little over the price of one!  (the skin was inexpensive)  Thank you Muru for your help!

I also had a chance last month to head down to Three Hils, Alberta to visit a few retired SIM folk.  Those of you who are SIM people may recognize the name Rex and Dorothy Beam.  This couple were the first SIM missionaries to go to Botswana.  I guess you could say that they were the ones to “break ground” in Botswana as far as SIM ministries are concerned.  It was great to hear of their adventures while in Botswana.  I stayed with them for a few days and attended an SIM prayer meeting where I was able to share with them my ministry in Botswana.  I was also able to visit the bible college there called “Prairie Bible Institute”.  One of the pilots who works for the Flying Mission (Tim Schubert) told me that if I ever get to Three Hills that I should check out there Mission Aviation program.  Tim graduated from Three Hills a few years back and I was able to visit the hangar where he took his classes and got to see a few of the planes and even met a few of the students currently enrolled in the program.  One of the instructors had actually been to Botswana and had worked with the Flying Mission for a few months so we had a lot to talk about together.  I think it’s great that a bible school even has a hangar and an entire program to train pilots specifically for the mission field.  Aviation opens so many different doors for mission work so it's great that Prairie has noticed this and has invested time and finances into developing the program.  Thank you Prairie Bible Institute for the tour of your facility!

Last week I was able to travel to Vancouver to attend a friends wedding.  While I was there I had the pleasure of reconnecting with some old friends from bible college.  It was a fun filled week and I was glad for the opportunity to go and visit friends I haven’t seen in years.  Thanks go out to Jason Lavergne and Luke & Stephanie Davis for being such gracious hosts to me while I was visiting.  You guys rock!

I guess that about sums up my life for the last few months.  As usual I would like to close with some prayer requests so here they are in no particular order:

1)  Support raising – Pray that people would join with me in ministry to Botswana both prayerfully and financially and that I would be able to depart by the target date of August 31^st.

2)  Church visitation – I am hoping to re-visit the churches that have supported me in the past.  Pray that we would be able to find some open dates between now and the end of August.

3)  Passport Renewal – With all the travelling I’ve been doing I haven’t been able to renew my passport.  Pray that I would be able to get the paperwork in and finish the process of renewing my passport.

4)  Spiritual attacks – I’ve experienced spiritual attacks during my support raising times in the past.  Pray that I wouldn’t be discouraged by these but instead be encouraged by them by realizing that this is something the enemy does not want to happen in my life.  Pray for protection as I go through this necessary process.

Thanks go out to all of you who have been praying for me during this process of transition.  I appreciate so much the interest people have shown in my ministry to Botswana.  This simply confirms to me the calling that God has laid on my heart to return to Botswana.  May the Lord bless as we continue to serve him together.

Peace and prayers,

Graham Crawford <><